Time of Flight systems are systems that resolve differences to objects using light. Generally, an object is illuminated with a light source, a camera measures light including light from the object, and the measurements are buffered and processed to determine distance. The distance is determined using the speed of light.
For example, Continuous Wave Time of Flight systems typically use four measurements at different phases, exposures, to determine a distance. Calculating the distance from raw sensor data typically requires storing large amounts of light measurements stored as data in a buffer which is done external of the Time of flight sensor chip. The stored data can be relatively large as it necessarily includes multiple exposures, e.g. exposures corresponding to four different phases. Furthermore, the calculations to determine the distance using the stored data can be complex. As a result, complex circuitry and relatively large amounts of power are required to determine distance in the time of flight systems.
What is needed are techniques to determine distance using the speed of light with reduced complexity and power consumption.